The findings that have lately been printed in the International Journal of Obesity found that engaging in low-intensity physical activity is advantageous to the health of both the mother and the baby.

Jonatan R. Ruiz, the main author of the study and a researcher from the Karolinska Institute, Sweden states that maintaining a physically active routine all through pregnancy has no harm on the foetal health.

The study involved 160 women in the ages of 20-25 years in good health, all having languid lifestyles and not at risk of premature delivery. In this set of women, half of them adopted the exercise routine under the guidance and direction of experts from the Physical Activity and Sports Science in association with the Gynaecology and Obstetrics Unit of Hospital Severo Ochoa, Madrid.

The researchers employed several variables for assessing foetal health like body weight, size and gestation age among women and they evaluated the outcome of the exercise regimen conducted till the final trimester of pregnancy on the body weight and size of the unborn child.

All the health factors were analogous in the set of women that adopted the exercise routine when evaluated against those women that didn’t partake in any form of physical activity when pregnant; suggestive of the fact that exercising has no risk on the foetal health.

The authors additionally carried out measurements of the weight of the mother prior to getting pregnant, the foetal body size and if there was a presence of gestational diabetes. In the set of women that didn’t engage in any form of physical exercise –the control group, it was noticed that the pre-pregnancy weight were certainly related to the weight of the newly born child.

Inactive mothers of higher pre-pregnancy weight delivered heavier babies. This association however was not noticed among the set of women that adopted an exercise routine when pregnant. The experts cautioned that babies born excessively heavy (greater than four kgs) are at heightened risk of becoming diabetic and prone to particular forms of cancers during adulthood, along with birth-related complications.

A recent study undertaken in India to examine the relation of BV with idiopathic PTL and preterm delivery involved 150 women hospitalised with idiopathic PTL that were chosen for the study on the basis of the following criteria stated below:

Inclusion criteria

• Singleton pregnancy.
• Gestation age lying between 28 to 36 weeks.
• Intact membranes.
• Those experiencing more than two uterine contractions within a time span of ten minutes and each contraction lasting more than 45 seconds.
• Cervix that has undergone dilatation between one to four centimetres.
• Cervical effacing more than 25%.

Exclusion criteria

• Gestational age being less than 28 weeks.
• Those women with a past of antepartum hemorrhage, urinary tract infection (UTI), respiratory tract infections, diarrhoea or any other palpable reason for preterm labor.
• Medical complications during pregnancy like moderate to chronic anemia, hypertension induced by pregnancy and diabetes mellitus.
• A past of trickling per vaginum or missing membranes.
• More than one pregnancy determined.
• IUGR or Intrauterine Growth Retardation.
• Intrauterine fetal fatality.
• Antibiotic treatment being undertaken during the past thirty days.

The study carried out incorporated 75 women with PTL without any evident reasoning for it. The control set comprised of 75 women carrying single pregnancy at term gestation. A comprehensive history was undertaken particularly to include any history of past abortion, preterm delivery, stillbirths and neonatal fatality. A meticulous general and methodical exam was carried out to note the fundal height, abdominal measurement, presentation, the strength, regularity and period of the uterine contractions and fetal cardiovascular pattern and rate. A speculum examination was carried out to rule out any leaking and to make a note of the type of discharge that was collected to be used for pH evaluation, amine testing and to make a smear to be used for gram staining procedure. Using the strip method the vaginal discharge was tested for pH.